Stardew Valley developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone is juggling a lot proper now. Between creating the large 1.7 replace for Stardew, catching up with loads of fan mail, and celebrating Stardew’s tenth anniversary with a bunch of interviews, I don’t perceive how this man has time to sleep. Nonetheless, he’s additionally managing to make progress on his subsequent challenge, Haunted Chocolatier, which is outwardly going to be even greater than some followers anticipated.
In an interview with Sport Informer printed on Might 12, Barone opened up concerning the attraction of constructing video games and his present schedule. After all, he additionally needed to trace at some information about his subsequent challenge. He mentioned that he’s now making an attempt to work on Haunted Chocolatier 5 days per week and spending the opposite two on Stardew Valley, which is ready to obtain its much-hyped 1.7 replace quickly (take a time without work, man!). Now that Haunted Chocolatier is taking on the majority of his time, it’s shaping as much as be a fairly in-depth challenge.
“It’s manner greater than Stardew Valley, not less than by way of the quantity of maps, the quantity of monsters, the depth to the entire merchandise system, and all of the gear slots and all of the stuff like this,” he informed Sport Informer. “All the pieces is cranked up.”
Barone prompt that Haunted Chocolatier has barely darker themes than Stardew Valley. He additionally talked about being afraid to make sure adjustments, like making characters like Caroline and Robin romanceable by way of divorces, to Stardew as a result of plot beats like these would possibly really feel “too actual.” In Haunted Chocolatier, although, he’s permitting his writing to get rather less cozy (and even creepy).
“I’m involved in exploring a darker theme, a darker ambiance,” he mentioned. “The ghosts, the haunted nature, the fort, permits for lots of fascinating, artistic issues that I can do which might be sort of creepy, like not completely horrifying, however possibly barely, you understand, creepy stuff.”
Barone had some particularly endearing stuff to say about making artwork (and in addition dissed AI as “a soulless machine”):
Finally, I simply wish to carry magic to folks. I wish to delight folks with magical emotions. It’s the identical manner that after I performed video games after I was a child, I felt that—and never simply video games however different issues, motion pictures or books or no matter—however [games] gave me this particular magical feeling that it’s virtually laborious to explain… It’s this ethereal feeling that it simply makes… I believe children are very attuned to that kind of factor.
Like they see gnomes and so they see issues, as a result of I believe they’re extra linked to that artistic, religious facet, in a manner. We sort of love that as adults, and I believe it’s unhappy. I wish to not less than create one space the place adults can sort of droop their disbelief and really feel that once more for a little bit bit. And I believe I achieved that typically in Stardew Valley, and that’s what I’m hoping to proceed to attain with Haunted Chocolatier.
I’m at all times an enormous fan of getting to listen to sport builders discuss their craft, particularly once they get a little bit bizarre with it, so I actually loved getting to listen to Barone evaluate the mystique of Stardew to children seeing gnomes. Stardew Valley is without doubt one of the uncommon video games I’ve put lots of of hours into, and I’m stoked to see if Barone is ready to pull off that very same sense of marvel as soon as once more in Haunted Chocolatier (with or with out the gnomes).
